Thermal control units (TCUs), such as heating and chilling systems are widely used to establish and maintain a process tool or other device at a selected and variable temperature. Typical examples of a modern thermal or temperature control unit are found in highly capital intensive semiconductor fabrication facilities. Stringent spatial requirements are placed on the TCUs, in order to preserve expensive floor space as much as possible. Reliability must be assured, because the large capital equipment costs required do not tolerate downtime in operation if profitable performance is to be obtained. The target temperature may be changed for different fabrication steps, but must be held closely until that particular step is completed. In many industrial and common household refrigeration systems the purpose is to lower the temperature to a selected level, and then maintain the temperature within a temperature range that is not highly precise. Thus even though reliable and long-lived operation is achieved in these commercial systems, the performance is not up to the demands of highly technical production machinery.
In most modern TCUs actual temperature control of the tool or process is exercised by use of an intermediate thermal transfer fluid which is circulated from the TCU through the equipment and back again in a closed cycle. A thermal transfer fluid is selected that is stable in a desired operating range below its boiling temperatures at the minimum operating pressure of said fluid. It also must have suitable viscosity and flow characteristics within its operating range. The TCU itself employs a refrigerant, usually now of an ecologically acceptable type, to provide any cooling needed to maintain the selected temperature. The TCU may circulate the refrigerant through a conventional liquid/vapor phase cycle. In such cycles, the refrigerant is first compressed to a hot gas at high pressure level, then condensed to a pressurized liquid. The gas is transformed to a liquid in a condenser by being passed in close thermal contact with a cooling fluid; it is either liquid cooled by the surrounding fluid or directly by environmental air. The liquid refrigerant is then lowered in temperature by expansion through a valve to a selected pressure level. This expansion cools the refrigerant by evaporating some of the liquid, thereby forcing the liquid to equilibrate at the lower saturation pressure. After this expansive chilling, the refrigerant is passed into heat exchange relation with the thermal transfer fluid to cool said thermal transfer fluid, in order to maintain the subject equipment at the target temperature level. Then the refrigerant is returned in vapor phase to the pressurization stage. A source of heating must usually be supplied to the thermal transfer fluid if it is needed to raise the temperature of the circulated thermal transfer fluid as needed. This is most often an electrical heater placed in heat exchange with the circulated fluid and provided with power as required.
Such TCUs have been and are being very widely used with many variants, and developments in the art have lowered costs and improved reliability for mass applications. In mass produced refrigerators, for example, tens of thousands of hours of operation are expected, and at relatively little cost for maintenance. However, such refrigeration systems are seldom capable of operating across a wide temperature range, and lower cost versions often use air flow as a direct heat exchange medium for the refrigerated contents.
In contrast, the modern TCU for industrial applications has to operate precisely, is a typical requirement being ±<1° C., at a selected temperature level, and shift to a different level within a wide range (e.g. −40° C. to +60° C. for a characteristic installation). Typical thermal transfer fluids for such applications include a mixture of ethylene glycol and water (most often in deionized form) or a proprietary perfluorinated fluid sold under the trademark “Galden” or “Fluorinert”. These fluids and others have found wide use in these highly reliable, variable temperature systems. They do not, however, have high thermal transfer efficiencies, particularly the perfluorinated fluids, and impose some design demands on the TCUs. For example, energy and space are needed for a pumping system for circulating the thermal transfer fluid through heat exchangers (HEXs) and the controlled tool or other equipment. Along with these energy loss factors, there are energy losses in heat exchange due to the temperature difference needed to transfer heat and also losses encountered in the conduits coupling the TCU to and from the controlled equipment. Because space immediately surrounding the device to be cooled often at is a premium, substantial lengths of conduit may be required, which not only introduces energy losses but also increases the time required to stabilize the temperature of the process tool. In general the larger the volume of the TCU the farther the TCU needs to be located remotely from the device to be controlled. The fluid masses along the flow paths require time as well as energy to compensate for the losses they introduce. Any change in temperature of the device to be controlled must also affect the conduits connecting the TCU and the controlled device along with the thermal transfer fluid contained in said conduits. This is because the thermal transfer fluid is in intimate thermal contact with the conduit walls. Thus, the fluid emerging at the conduit end nearest the controlled device arrives at said device at a temperature substantially equal to that of the conduit walls and these walls must be changed in temperature before the controlled device can undergo a like change in temperature.
Under the continuing demand for improved systems and results, there is a need for a TCU which minimizes these losses. If possible, the system should also be compact, of low capital cost, and preserve or even increase the long life and reliable characteristics which have become expected.
To the extent that straightforward refrigeration systems may have hitherto employed a refrigerant without a separate thermal transfer fluid, it has been considered that the phase changes imposed during the refrigeration cycle prohibit direct use of the refrigerant at a physical distance outside the cycle. A conventional refrigerant inherently relies on phase changes for energy storage and conversion, so that there must also be a proper state or mix of liquid and vapor phases at each point in the refrigeration cycle for stable and reliable operation of the compressor and other components. Using a saturable fluid such as a refrigerant directly in heat exchange with a variable thermal load presents formidable system problems.
The present application teaches for the first time a system which directly employs the high thermal transfer efficiency of a refrigerant mixture of liquid and vapor in a highly efficient system capable of very fast temperature change response. It eliminates the need for substantial delay times to correct temperature levels at the device being controlled, as well as for substantial energy losses in conduits and HEXs, and the need for substantial time delays in shifting between target temperatures at different levels.